good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm carolyn tyler. >> after miniyears, $800 billion and 4500 american lives, u.s. combat troops are out of iraq. they were loaded on to planes

and trucks last night and at daybreak this morning. final convoy rolled across the border into neighboring kuwait. she rode with the troops during her 21st trip to iraq. >> it was just before sundown when the troops made final preparations for the mission that would be the last for u.s. military forces here. there were more than 100 vehicles and nearly 500 soldiers anxious is n so many ways to make history. >> what are you feeling on the last day in iraq? >> i don't think there are any words to describe it. i can't wait to get out of here. >> this was my first deployment. it's nice to be going home, especially before the holidays. >> at the front of the convoy will be clearly vehicles, they will be looking for roadside

bombs because this is the last convoy out doesn't mean it's not dangerous here. >> which is why the mission was in pitch darkness. soldiers loaded up for the more than a hundred mile journey to the border. was slowgoing, four and a half hours later, we arrive. out of iraq for the last time. >> i'm used to being here. so i'm finally glad we're done with this, we're going home. >> reporter: to the rising sun in kuwait. the number of families affected by an alameda apartment fire has grown. more than two dozen families are homeless after their apartment was destroyed. the fire did more than million

and a half dollars in damage and the flames engulfed the second and third floors of the building on shorepoint drive. this is video residents shared of the fire at full force. you can see plumes of thick black smoke and fierce flames roaring out of the building. he was able to save his laptop before running out of his room. he says the fire started in the apartment next to his. >> the guy, it was a little warm taking a shower and when he came back it happened. >> they set up him for housing that will likely being his home for a while. he says all residents are required to have renters insurance and he is covered so he is handling this fire surprisingly well. >> what do you think? >> it happens, old buildings, no fire suppression system in the building. >> this whole building had been

red-tagged by the fire department. the flames gutted six apartments as fire smoke and water damage rendered 12 others uninhabitable. 63 apartments are off-limits have managed to find someplace to stay for now. lines of residents patiently waited to retrieve a few essentials. crews rescued some residents that were trapped on upper floors. >> it was kind of like a dream. he got to the window and took the dog. >> they were among the few rescued by ladder. this is a picture sent by a viewer rescuing another small dog. >> all residents have managed to find accommodations for now, the red cross says they can call the american red cross at their emergency dispatch line, that number 1-66-272-2237.

in east oakland right now. fire crews are on the scene of a deadly house fire. it broke out around 7:40 this morning on arthur street near 79th avenue. the fire is out but investigators say that that blaze is still under investigation. three san francisco families are looking for a home this morning after their apartment units were damaged after fire broke out around 1:30 yesterday afternoon on judith street. fire officials say the blaze was sparked by an electrical short. one person was treated at the scene. >> the principal of an east bay middle school is apologizing for a newsletter that contained a racist cash too often. sequoia middle school e-mailed the newsletter including a drawing of a noose around the neck of african-american peanuts

character franklin along with white power. a substitute staff member accidentally put the photo in the newsletter. it was on the school's computer as part of the investigation of vandalism that happened three years ago at the school. >> police say a man suspected of shooting a fellow hells angel member has been spotted in san jose. steve ruiz has been on the run since the october 15th shooting. officers say he was seen driving a gold 1995 gmc yukon or of an older toyota four runner. he is accused of killing a person in oakland hill cemetery in san jose. it happened during a funeral of jeffrey pedigrew he was the president of the san jose chapter. the state's oldest medical

marijuana dispensary has closed its doors under pressure from the federal government. they posted a sign saying it was closing. dispensary is being targeted because it's too close to facilities used by children. patients are upset. >> i think it's absolutely nuts for the federal government how they can bypass the local state law and do this to us, take advantage of these people. they are providing medicine for sick people to take care of them >> i can't sleep at night. >> the attorney for the dispensary's landlord says the operator is fighting the eviction in court. >> sleepless nights for east bay mud at the site of a sinkhole in san pablo. the sinkhole was created by the rupture of a transmission line and an eight-inch water main.

resulting flooding caused property damage to some residents. the sinkhole exposed a pipeline near a shell station. that pipeline is being drained before repairs can begin on the water lines. three months after it begin, protestors tried to rebuild the occupy movement. next, the latest on the ongoing protests. plus is victoria secret keeping a secret from customers? new controversy around

there is new report raising serious requests about the possible link between child labor and lingerie maker victoria secret. cotton fields, one of the poorest countries in the world seem a long way from the runways of new york, but cotton comes from the farms of the west african nation where young children are doing back breaking work. >> everybody knows about it which is why it was so sadly easy to find. the farmers spoke about it because they didn't know they were doing anything wrong. >> victoria secret issued a statement to abc news, our standards specifically prohibit child labor. we are vigorously engaged with stakeholders to investigate.

the company says they rely on international fair trade groups to make sure that children are not working in the fields. >> occupy movement is three months old and it's seen it's share of tough times. many of the camps have been dismantled including several here in the bay area. as tomas ramon explains, some occupiers vowed they are here to stay. >> reporter: this is where it begin, new york city. hundreds of wall street protestors attempted to occupy a park owned by trinity church. it was three-month anniversary of the movement and called for solidarity from all camps nationwide. it was short-lived. police removed the camp and arrested about four people. the call for national reoccupy in all the cities where the camps were dismantled was heard in san jose. it brought in a crowd of about 30 protestors. they sent up tents that they later took down. >> it's been about a month since

the local pd shut us out. >> occupy encampments have been shut down by cities that are fed up with trash and violence. last month the oakland camp was taken down by a second time. one man was shot to death near the camp which proved to be the last straw for the city. >> in san francisco the camp was taken down earlier this month after negotiations broke down between okay few pie and the mayor. they offered another site. they set up about ten tents in the shadow of embarcadero one. we're not going anywhere. they may steal our tents and take houses from disenfranchised people but we are out here. >> it's basically symbolic and well-mannered. the park close doun at 8:00 p.m.

and occupiers took down their tents. >> believe it or not. winter begins this week. it's already feeling like that early in the morning. >> look at all the fog behind us. in san jose, in emeryville, it's gray. here is the view from mount tam where we have the low clouds but fog, napa and santa rosa, concord down to a quarter mile visibility. how about the of today and the week before christmas coming up. also ahead, the clean energy industry expects to hire all kinds of people over the next decade. we'll look at some of the careers in wind energy next.

>> closed captioning b b b b b b welcome back everyone. it is 9:17. thanks for joining us on this sunday mornings. this is live look from our emeryville high definition camera showing you, as lisa said part of the bay socked in by fog. when will it lift? lisa will be here with the answer in just a minute. people in the wind energy business hope to hire half a million people in the next ten years for all sorts of jobs which means that abc7's wayne freedman reports, even mountain climbers should apply. >> in the rustic sacramento

grasslands near birds landing a quiet revolution has been building. we have entered a realm of mechanical behemoths. they power distant neighborhoods. they keep the home fires burning in on the way. >> an industrial web. >> that is the cow's tail? >> why? >> wee how they come up with the names, i don't know. >> how about mountain climbing. in a high-tech industrial twist, that is what they are about to do. it goes by hoist, 267 feet straight to the top. it's one way up and just wait until you see how they make their way down. windmills may be low maintenance but not exactly low maintenance. they develop problems, anything from a lightning strike to something else and somebody has to go up there and fix them.

it is new kind of career with a twist and more than a few knots. please don't untangle those ropes, it could cause a bit too much togetherness, even like rose or taylor. >> do you get philosophical up there, going down. [ laughter ] >> during those occasional moments when suddenly look around, why in the world am i doing this job. >> reporter: they work for a company called rope partner based in santa cruz. rose got her mountain climbing skills and kaleb construction talents. >> is this a growth industry? >> definitely. look around. >> that is chris, another climber who happened to start the company back in 1999. >> reporter: did you know what you were getting in to? >> i did. i knew it was going to be a new and big energy source and i could employ a lot of people to do this work. >> reporter: it's like watching

bugs, they make pretty good money. rose and kaleb documented the damage, they took photos and slowly, gracefully made their way down just another day at the office. >> and then? >> got all this stuff on me. >> here is another take, you must be athletic, like a human fly, mountaineers preferred. wayne freedman, "abc 7 news." well, happy hanukkah that begins on tuesday, merry christmas is one week from today. both days are going to be high and dry. >> yes. people are really on edge. it's the the end year. closing out 2011, rain doesn't look likely. pattern is happening because we are looking at high pressure,

spare the air. where we have stagnant weather. tahoe is at 22 degrees. troubling key is at 16. today highs in the mid 40s, northern sierra. southern sierra, low 50s. we've had an onshore flow. that brought the fog from the ocean. here it is in san francisco where it's been pretty darn foggy. visibility has been reduced up by the delta. that is radiation fog. we have both the fog combining this morning and sunshine is with us in the south bay and breaking out into a hazy afternoon due to poor air quality. very light winds but changes tonight. 37 in concord. livermore, both valleys were down into the upper 20s. napa 32. 44 in oakland. 48 in san francisco. we are looking at visibility less than a quarter of a mile.

in concord we had some of the fog blow in from the east bay. and the tule fog went from the delta right through concord and now it's sitting. some of that will be working on it. the atmosphere will be drying out a little bit, but notice santa rosa, mile three-quarter visibility. we will have more moisture due to the onshore flow. on a cloudy day it makes it feel cool but overnight, a little warmer. areas of fog and hazy sunshine. no rain. it takes us through christmas eve and christmas day looks dry and maybe a sprinkle here or there. it looks like through the end of the year perhaps we will remain dry. close-up satellite shows the fog from the ocean. you can see it stacked up here. then we've got the delta fog and dense fog that was happening in sacramento, san joaquin valley. take you through the next couple of hours, by noontime, hazy sun,

but evening hours fog is back. we'll stay just a little warmer tonight. here is a look at the low that brought us the rain on thursday. still lingering about, bringing rain to barstow and the desert. you can see the trough here. as the high stays with us, dry conditions that blocking ridge for next several days. one is diving south. that will mix out some of that stagnant air and we'll see the lift with a little bit warmer in days ahead. 53 in yosemite with upper 50s here. cooler here today. warmer numbers down in the south bay and morgan hill, upper 50s for san rafael. look for wind which should improve the air quality, winter begins wednesday night and by christmas we're looking even warmer, mid-60s coming our way. >> you were saying that we get

most of our rain in january and february? >> absolutely. >> all right. let's check out sports. warriors new head coach gets put to the test with a game against sacramento kings. how did he do here is shu. >> warriors head coach mark jackson promised hard-nosed team that plays defense and they handled the kings at oracle arena. first round pick, clay thompson, a floater. the pats go was phenomenal. mcgwire to and his pass. still and give and go ellis had 18. warriors led by 19 at the half. more possible go in the fourth, jeff curry the bullet to mcgwire he jams it home. monta to curry on the break, he

had 22. warriors roll 107-97 but the coach wasn't happy. >> i can do a lot of guys one night. i want them to stiap. on the second half they took the foot off the gas pedal and let them off the hook. the great ones go for the jugular. >> undefeated ohio state. what a game for jennifer brandon cal trailed by 14 with five and a half to play. brandon with one of career highs 21 rebounds but ohio state hangs on to win it. fourth ranked stanford women defeats princeton. that is their 67th straight win at maims. sharks have not been playing up to expectations as of late

but winning their second straight last night. oilers and sharks getting close and personal. 1-0 sharks. ed mon mun ton answers, great move to the net and game tied at 1. oilers up 2-1 in the second. to thorton in front. it's 2-2. stays that way through the third when pavelsky with a great feed to pedro martinez. they win it 3-2. >> if you are talking about high school championships, de lasalle is on top. they are looking for the 11th straight win. first drive, 38-yard romp and to the second, now 14-0, to michael hudson, see ya. 28 yards. and to the defense, what an

interception by anthony williams. senior making a huge play in the end zone. de lasalle does it again, 35-0. division 3, state championship game in fresno with surprise of the season taking on the board. chris cain, what a catch. 7-0 panthers. brett stevens to griffin, watch him go. 37 yards the tampa down 14-10 but that is as close as they get. 21-16 is the final. >> saturday night football, cowboys and bucs. tony romo making it worse. for the touchdown, 7-0 cowboys in the first. romo get right back in the red zone. three td passes and another on the ground. cowboys beat the bucs 31-15 the final. >> andre ward must be getting

tired of his opponent saying that he has no knockout punch. ward the medalist never stood a chance. andre used the jab instead of his left hook and it was a unanimous decision he adds another belt to his title. 25-0 in his career with 13 knockouts. >> and what a performance by alexis thompson. chip in for birdie at 9. birdied five of the last seven holes. 16-year-old already the youngest to win an lpga event. what a story. raiders host detroit. i'm mike shumann. have a great day. >> up next, u.s. senate takes action on payroll taxes. now it's up to the house. we'll look how that would affect you over the next two months.

and south bay toy drive is coming up short this year. we'll tell you how you can help some needy kids for the holidays.

welcome back everyone. members of the house are getting ready to vote tomorrow a senate approved payroll tax cut extension. they passed it yesterday along with a huge spending bill to keep government offices open through next september. tax cut will last two months. it will extend unemployment benefits. it pairnts puts president obama into the corner. a provision says he must issue for a permit for an oil pipeline or declare it's not in the national interests. >> the economy is still struggling to pull out of worst

recession since the great depression. are the solutions among us? dan ashley hosts a special half-hour on the economy. join us for the road to recovery solutions from the 99%, that is tonight at 6:30. republican presidential hopeful mitt romney has picked up a major endorsement from the des moines register. largest newspaper in iowa backed mccain's nomination in 2008. editorial board acknowledges the register passed it last time but says he has matured as a candidate. the republican endorsement comes just over iowa's caucuses january 3rd. neighbors were looking for answers at a meeting in dublin after an experiment that could have killed somebody. on december 67, a show was testing a cannon at the bomb range, cannon missed its target sending a cannonball through a

nearby neighborhood. >> this is homemade cannon that launched the metal ball which tore through a incident lynn neighborhood last week. they put it on display for residents concerned for the tv stunt that backfired. >> i'm not thrilled they are using a facility and especially for experiments for the myth buster show. >> they were testing a cannon. last year myth busters paid alameda $20,000 to use the facility. they fired a regular cannon twice and brought in a homemade gun. they missed the water barrel that was supposed to stop the ball. it tore through a wall bouncing off the hill, through a house and then hitting another home and finally a minivan. >> we're reevaluating the use of

the facility. we're going to make sure that the experiments are safe and nothing hazardous will take place again. >> i understand that people will be reviewing it and making sure that we never do an experiment like this, i'm very confident that it will be safe. >> could it be the end of mid busters in dublin? >> i don't think so. what you heard about not having the cannon balls. >> they had a hamburger lunch for residents and gave away free t-shirts and autographs. >> we take this seriously both on local level and on global level of everything we do in the future. the state attorney general the fighting fire with fire, or technology with technology.

pamela harris has launched a model approach for fighting high-tech crime. karina rusk reports on the new e-crime unit. >> state attorney general pamela harris was in san jose to unveil her vision to take criminal investigations to the next level. it's called the e-crime unit. this would be more sophisticated the ecu will act as a technology crime fighting hub. >> we're creating labs where the technology will be there for local law enforcement can bring in smart phones and we can do the downloading that is necessary. >> using the technology more effectively to technology related crimes. they will focus on prosecuting on crimes, on internet fraud, intellectual property crimes such as counterfeiting and peir ri and child solicitation.

the prosecution has been a weak link in this crime rich landscape. >> big challenge in this industry has been not so much tracking the bad guys, tracking the bad guys is the easy parted but it's bringing them to justice. >> the state showed off some of the evidence. they estimated $1.5 million in counterfeit jewelry. a tracy woman faces five counts. also an atm scam which was involved $2 million. and there was recent credit card skimming at bay area lucky stores. >> this is kind of scam that people are affected that live hundreds of miles apart and the activity takes over the course of months. it requires a kind of partnership and task force model

and that is something that the attorney general is putting forth today. as 2011 comes to a close, it's time to look back at headline news. the killing of osama bin laden was the top news story according to the poll of editors and news directors by the associated press. the death of bin laden got more than half the votes cast for the top ten stories. japan's earthquake was next on the list followed by the arab spring, financial turmoil in europe came in fourth. in berkeley this weekend police and fire departments held their annual toys for tots giveaway. registered families lined up yesterday morning to get first choice of gifts and toys. the police and fire departments have a distribution center for the toys that are donated by various groups. an estimated 1,000 families were

helped this year. organizers are still short of hundreds of toys for one of the biggest holiday giveaways in silicon valley. volunteer groups and community groups are trying to fill a wish list for about 9,000 children at their holiday party. demand has almost doubled this year. for some children this will be their only holiday gift. you can drop off a toy at santa clara labor center in san jose this morning if you want to help. >> you can still contribute to the abc7's food drive. call the number on your screen. or text the word to give $10. we 6 more information on our website at abc7news.com. if you were shopping in oakland parking was free. it will be free again next saturday. the developmentally is to encourage visitors to buy local.

the offer is good at all parking meters between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on christmas eve and some folks will be out there, i hope not me. i hope i'm done by then. >> are you usually? >> usually i am. >> the weather you could say is cooperating. it's not cooperating with the ski resorts, rainfall deficit because we're below. we need some. we're talking fog right now. temperatures in the 40s. fog in the south bay. i'll give you a look at the seven-day outlook coming up. >> also coming up, some of michael jackson's property

switching to progressive could mean hundreds more in your wallet year after year. feed me! saving you money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today.

auction officials says the contents of michael jackson's home brought in triple their estimate. the house before he lived before his death two years ago. the highlights the rug under the bed where he died, just over $15,000. estimate was only $400 and a desk brought over $18,000. all right. lisa is here talking about our need for rain. >> wind shifts so we have an onshore flow in the city. out by the delta, here is a look you'll notice, it's like a summer like pattern. you can see the deck of low clouds there. in the city, across towards the bay we have the fog and some of this fog is coming in from the delta. it's radiation fog and that will linger a little bit.

seeing the onshore confined to san francisco points north. we're sunny parts of the peninsula but we do have airport delays at sfo. keep that in mind. sunshine in san jose, cool 40 in mountain view. 43 in los gatos. 39 in santa rosa. fog is still a problem. from concord, less than a quarter mile. fairfield, two miles. santa rosa, mile and three-quarters. you were down to 28 degrees early this morning. in napa it was freezing in concord and livermore. it's been cold and foggy. those winds coming off the ocean will keep it a little bit cooler spare-the-air day overall, winds have been light. when we get the sunshine, we do have a weak weather system that will mix things out. it could warm us up in the days ahead. several weex weak systems are forecasted to come our way in the next six to ten days but any

of them providing rain, doesn't look like anything substantial. close-up satellite we've got all the fog at the coast. locally in the north bay is beginning to break up. peninsula and east bay. we have dry conditions as well through mt. shasta and lake tahoe. looking at sunshine and fog burns back by 11:00, 12:00 for hazy afternoon sun but it comes back tonight. that should keep us from dropping us off to the 20s or low 30s. that moisture should give us a little bit in the way of warmth. here is that low that brought us the rain on thursday. still providing some rain for the deserts in southern california. blocking high keeps us cry for the week ahead, including christmas day and temperatures continue to come down a little bit. we saw 70s on friday and mid-60s yesterday. today we're talking about upper

50s to low 60s. with that onshore flow, cooler today at our coasts with mid-50s. to upper 50s as winds will bring us a cleaner atmosphere but no rain. winter arrives on wednesday night but it already felt like it. by next weekend so far. >> do you have a favorite holiday movie. >> that is my favorite. it's a classic, "it's a wonderful life," you might like something like" bad santa." one movies say it can't possibly be true. so we want to do holiday myth busting. here is ginger zee. in most holiday films you have to rely on belief. >> there is no christmas spirit. >> but what if belief doesn't

cut it this holiday season. we decided to bring in some cold hard science to those holiday movies. those elaborate scenes from home alone, totally do-able. but flying reindeer, not going to touch that one. how about the one scene that everyone at some point has been tempted to try? it's perhaps the most famous scene in a christmas story, a grade schooler and middle of winter with his tongue frozen to the flagpole but can that really happen? >> i set out to put it to the test, no, i'm not going to do that. >> there is another way to test it. >> it's well below freezing and wet finger and stick it to the

metal. it is definitely stuck. >> let's break it down. in indiana, in december, temperatures can hit below 30 degrees and it's more moisture and warmer and my finger and much easier to freeze. people have tried it and gotten stuck in oklahoma and idaho. most needed help from the fire department. so that holiday movie myth, true. >> this is no silicon based. >> the christmas vacation. taking a simple whole lot of cooking grease and hitting it at lightning fast speed. this one, i will try. going to a resort in pennsylvania, we took it to task.

first, the control ride, one faster. no extra grease. my time, 10.4 seconds. so can added cooking oil launch me at national lampoon speed? >> we got this and see if it makes a difference. >> to. [ laughter ] >> what is your time. my time was cut by over a second. while my ride was tough this

holiday myth true. >> i'm a professional. >> don't go away. "7 on your side" is next. >> there are fears that pg&e customers could be left in the cold this winter. the story is clcl

emergency provisions that help families that are unable to pay their power bills are about to run out. some people want to limit pg&e's

ability to cut off their power. >> they gave me a 48-hour notice. they wanted to shut it off completely. >> ester is unemployed pitting three children through college and raising her developmentally delayed son. they and rest of the family were 48 hours away from losing their power to san francisco home because they couldn't afford to pay their pg&e bill. but then the emergency provisions kicked in. >> they were saying, whatever is pass due she would -- past due she would add the provisions. >> it was put in place back in 2010 and customers that qualify a minimum of three months to pay off their delinquent bills. pg&e must personally meet about the customer before shutting the power off if the customer

depends on power for medical needs. if a customer is disconnected, the utility is prevented from charging customers a credit deposit to restore their power. >> we would be happy to help you with that. >> the california public utilities commission implemented the provision, pg&e had the largest disconnect rate out of all four major utilities in california, more than 8%. but that since dropped to 5.6 am. many credit the emergency provision that pg&e does not. >> for income qualified customers such as care program and other programs, but what we've been doing is better job of getting word out to our customers. >> the consumer advocate division of puc is pushing for a maximum disconnection rate of 5% by pg&e. >> it's reasonable for pg&e, it will allow their credit collections department to

continue to work on the best tools to support customers with low income. >> the utility reform network has consumer advocacy group agrees. >> electricity and gas are absolutely necessities. they are not luxuries. and they will not stop fighting until utilities turnoff is a thing of the past. >> a final hearing is at least two months away. we'll stay on top of it and keep you0p8t

salvation army bell ringer has broken the record for rick go the bell. they did that for 51 hours, 10 minutes and 25 seconds. he started thursday in front of macy's. he broke the previous record of

36 hours but unable to set a new one. there are five ringers around the country who lasted a little longer, but congratulations to bush and his effort. lisa has the final check of the forecast. >> a little cooler, 12:00 clearing, spare the air. raiders today, 59, 60 in fremont. we're going to warm it up a little bit and next couple of days, warming up by christmas but still no rain. >> that is going to do it for us. thank you for joining us. i'm carolyn tyler along with lisa argen. next newscast starts at 5:00. have a great sunday. happy hanukkah, merry christmas to everyone.